"To Native American Seminoles, the Milky Way is the path that leads good souls to heaven. To the Norse, it's a road leading to Valhalla [literally, hall of the slain; valr the slain; the palace of immortality, inhabited by the souls of heroes slain in battle.], while Chinese and Arab myths represent it as a river. The name Milky Way comes from the ancient Greeks and their belief that the band was a spray of milk, or "gala," from which the word galaxy originated.

The Milky Way's center lies in a direction roughly 5 degrees west-northwest of Gamma (g) Sagittarii, the star that marks the point in the teapot's spout.

It takes 200 million years for the Sun to complete one revolution around the galactic center. The last time the solar system occupied its current spot, Earth was in the age of reptiles and continental breakup."

(Courtesy Astronomy magazine, May 1999, pp. 92-93)